Aloha and welcome to the April Hire Score newsletter. As you might have guessed, I am writing this month's edition form the island of Kauai in Hawaii. We are getting ready to kickoff a new company that will be based here. The new company, Hiring Made Easy, is an internet-based collection of pre-packaged hiring solutions. I will let you know more about this exciting service, as we get ready to go live.

Well, let's jump in with some valuable tips. Yesterday, I had a conversation with a very good friend who is one of the best headhunters in the high technology arena. I had just referred a client who needs to hire 12 sales reps in the next 6 months. She spoke with the President for almost an hour to get some background information. She then called me to get some additional information about the company.

The first question she asked me was do they understand how difficult it is going to be for them to attract "A" players? You see this company is a small business without much national recognition. She was going through an evaluation process to determine whether or not she was going to be able to sell the company to prospective candidates. In case you have not noticed, the tables have turned completely in the recruiting business.

You must be interviewed and accepted by the good recruiting firms. You must sell the prospective candidates on considering your company before you get any information about them. As I have said many times before, all the traditional rules are pretty much out the window.

Given this situation, one major key to your recruitment success is to develop a reputation as an Employer Of Choice (EOC). You need to create a buzz about working for your company. The first step in developing your EOC reputation is to treat your existing employees well. They will be the best ambassadors of your company. They need to enjoy coming to work every day and feel like the company cares about them.

Next, you need to garner as much publicity as possible. Prospective candidates need to have heard about your company. This is one of the hidden benefits of a successful PR campaign. Take every opportunity possible to get your name out in the marketplace. Do whatever is necessary to build excitement about your company. The key is being HOT - Hot company, Hot products, Hot marketplace.

Winning the recruiting game is not going to be easy but it can be won. If you are not doing some of the things I suggested here, remember that your competitors probably are!

Question of the Month
Our question of the month this month comes from Australia. I just spent a week down under delivering presentations and working with clients. During one client visit, the CEO of a fast-growing start-up company asked me, "How can I develop a recruitment mentality inside my company?"

The fact that he asked this question tells me he is thinking along the right lines. Developing a recruitment mentality inside your company is critical to your recruiting success. Start the process by making recruiting a strategic initiative. Have it show up on everyone's list of objectives. Budget for recruiting and track your results. And the most important thing you can do is to aggressively implement an employee referral program.

When I proposed this to the CEO, he asked whether or not he should pay a bounty for the referrals. My emphatic answer was yes. The best programs I have seen I offer a referral fee large enough to attract the attention of your employees. There are two benefits of offering a referral fee. First, is gets your employees more involved which leads to more referrals. Second, it improves morale when the recruiting dollars your company spends stay inside the company instead going to outside vendors. So, if you don't' have an employee referral program, get one installed immediately.

Interviewing/Commentary

This month's interviewing tip ties right in with my commentary. I spoke with a client yesterday that wanted to make certain our Selecting Winners program would give his managers the ability to interview for values. Now I don't want to get off on a rant here but, there is no way that I am aware of to interview for values. They mean different things to different people and are very hard to define.

This does not mean values are not important and we should ignore them. It simply means they are very hard to interview for. But, the good news is that in our Selecting Winners workshop we do show you how to translate values into things you can interview for quantitatively.

Take your "value" and translate it into the behaviors a person with that value exhibits. Once you have clearly identified the behaviors, you can use a variety of behavioral-based interview techniques to determine if the candidate behaves in a way consistent with your definition of values.

Please don't get caught up in the trend du jour on interviewing (values, competencies, etc.). A solid, proven behavioral approach has the highest success rate possible.

Have a great month recruiting! Aloha!
BARRY SHAMIS